The title compound (I), (Fig. 1) is prepared as a precursor and for the study of biological activities.

The crystal structure of 6-fluoro-3-(4-methoxyphenyl)pyridin-2-ol (Siddle et al., 2010) has been published which is related to (I).

In (I) the fluorophenyl A (C1–C6/F1) and the 2-fluoropyridine B (C7—C11/N1/F2) are almost planar with r. m. s. deviations of 0.0025 Å and 0.0071 Å, rspectively. The dihedral angle between A/B is 37.93 (5)°. There does not exist any kind of π-interactions and the molecules must interact due to van Der Waals forces.

To a 6 ml solution of 5-bromo-2-fluoropyridine (0.2 g, 1.136 mmol), 4-fluorophenylboronic acid (0.190 g, 1.36 mmol) in Dioxane and K3PO4 (0.361 g, 1.5 mmol, in 1 ml H2O) was added Pd(PPh3)4 (1.5 mole %) at 373 K under N2 atmosphere. The reaction mixture was refluxed for 8 h. Then 20 ml of distilled water was added. The aqueous layer was extracted three times with EtOAc (3×15 ml). The organic layer was evaporated in vacuo and title compound was obtained as a colourless solid. Yield: 0.185 g, 85%. M.p. 350–352 K. Crystallization from a saturated CHCl3 /CH3OH solution gave colorless rods of (I).

The H-atoms were positioned geometrically (C–H = 0.93 Å) and refined as riding with Uiso(H) = xUeq(C), where x = 1.2 for all H-atoms. The absolute structure of the crystal used in this experiment was indeterminate.

Geometry. Bond distances, angles etc. have been calculated using the rounded fractional coordinates. All su's are estimated from the variances of the (full) variance-covariance matrix. The cell e.s.d.'s are taken into account in the estimation of distances, angles and torsion angles

Refinement. Refinement of F2 against ALL reflections. The weighted R-factor wR and goodness of fit S are based on F2, conventional R-factors R are based on F, with F set to zero for negative F2. The threshold expression of F2 > σ(F2) is used only for calculating R-factors(gt) etc. and is not relevant to the choice of reflections for refinement. R-factors based on F2 are statistically about twice as large as those based on F, and R- factors based on ALL data will be even larger.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the provision of funds for the purchase of a diffractometer and encouragement by Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhary, Vice Chancellor, University of Sargodha, Pakistan. MA also acknowledges financial support from the World University Service, Germany, for an equipment grant and the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan, for a resource grant.

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